The Science of Being Great

The Science of Being Great
Wallace Wattles | Page 1

Wallace D. Wattles
Introduction and Editing by
Adrian P. Cooper
Author of:
Our Ultimate Reality
Life, the Universe and the Destiny of Mankind
http://www.ourultimatereality.com

Table of Contents
Introduction by Adrian P. Cooper 5
Authors Preface 6
Chapter 1: Any Person May Become Great 7
Chapter 2: Heredity and Opportunity 10
Chapter 3: The Source of Power 13
Chapter 4: The Mind of God 16
Chapter 5: Preparation 19
Chapter 6: The Social Point of View 21
Chapter 7: The Individual Point of View 25
Chapter 8: Consecration 27
Chapter 9: Identification 30
Chapter 10: Idealization 32
Chapter 11: Realization 34
Chapter 12: Hurry and Habit 37
Chapter 13: Thought 40
Chapter 14: Action at Home 43
Chapter 15: Action Abroad 46
Chapter 16: Some Further Explanations 49
Chapter 17: More About Thought 51
Chapter 18: Jesus' Idea of Greatness 55
Chapter 19: A View of Evolution 58

Chapter 20: Serving God 61
Chapter 21: A Mental Exercise 64
Chapter 22 - A Summary of the Science of Being Great 67
Biographical Note 72

Introduction by
Adrian P. Cooper
Author of:
Our Ultimate Reality
Life, the Universe and the Destiny of Mankind
http://www.ourultimatereality.com
The Science of Being Great is one of three great works by Wallace Wattles,
the most well-known of which is “The Science of Getting Rich”, which has
influenced countless people over the years to achieve great wealth of their
own by following the immutable Universal laws as taught him.
In this book, The Science of Being Great, Wallace Wattles applies the same
Universal principles as he does in his other works, but this time for the
principles of “being great”. The Universal principles and laws constantly at
work in the Universe, and indeed keeping the very structure of the Universe
together, will work equally as well for anything at all that can be needed,
desired and imagined.
In The Science of Being Rich Wallace Wattles teaches how to use Universal
principles to acquire wealth. In The Science of being Well he teaches how to

acquire and maintain health. In the Science of Being Great he teaches how to
make the most of your life and is a very appropriate volume to this valuable
and empowering trilogy.
Authors Preface
This book is for the men and women, young and old, who wish to make the
most of life by making the most of themselves. I have tried to show plainly,
simply, and without unnecessary words, the way to power and capability; it is
written so that he who runs may read. I know that the system herein set forth
will work; it cannot fail. And I know that the men and women who practice
these methods of action with sincere hearts will enter into the powerful life;
they will be the children of the Highest, and stand among the great ones of
the world. I hope you who read this will be among them. No mere reading of
books can develop a great personality; nothing can make you great but
thought; therefore think, Think, THINK!

Chapter 1
Any Person May Become Great
There is a Principle of Power in every person. By the intelligent use and
direction of this principle, man can develop his own mental faculties. Man
has an inherent power by which he may grow in whatever direction he
pleases, and there does not appear to be any limit to the possibilities of his
growth. No man has yet become so great in any faculty but that is possible
for some one else to become greater. The possibility is in the Original
Substance from which man is made. Genius is Omniscience flowing into
man. Genius is more than talent. Talent may merely be one faculty developed
out of proportion to the other faculties, but genius is the union of man and
God in the acts of the soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds.
They are in connection with a reserve power that is without limit. We do not
know where the boundary of the mental powers of man is; we do not even
know that there is a boundary.
The power of conscious growth is not given to the lower animals; it is man's
alone and may be developed and increased by him. The lower animals can, to
a great extent, be trained and developed by man; but man can train and
develop himself. He alone has this power, and he has it to an apparently
unlimited extent.
The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and
plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines;
man can grow as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain
possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power which is or has
been shown by any person, anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is
impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible in
action. Nothing that man can imagine is
impossible of realization.
Man is formed for growth, and he is under the necessity of growing.

It is essential to his happiness that he should continuously advance.
Life without progress becomes unendurable, and the person who ceases from
growth must either become imbecile or insane. The greater and more
harmonious and well-rounded his growth, the happier man will be.
There is no possibility in any man that is not in every man; but if they
proceed naturally, no two men will grow into the same thing, or be alike.
Every man comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain
lines, and growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way.
This is a wise provision, for it gives endless variety. It is as if a gardener
should throw all his bulbs into one basket; to the superficial observer they
would look alike, but growth reveals a tremendous difference. So of men and
women; they are like the basket of bulbs. One may be a rose and add
brightness and color to some dark corner of the world; one may be a lily and
teach a lesson of love and purity to every eye that sees; one may be a
climbing vine and hide the rugged outlines of some dark rock; one may be a
great oak among whose boughs the birds shall nest and sing, and beneath
whose shade the flocks shall rest at noon, but every one will be something
worth while, something rare, something perfect.
These are undreamed of possibilities in the common lives all around us; in a
large sense, there is no "common" people. In times of national stress and peril
the cracker-box loafer of the corner store and the village drunkard become
heroes and statesmen through a quickening of the Principle of Power within
them. There is a genius in every man and woman, waiting to be brought forth.
Every village has its great man or woman; some one to whom all go for
advice in time of trouble; some one who is instinctively recognized as being
great in wisdom and insight. To such a one the minds of the whole
community turn in times of local crisis; he is tacitly recognized as being
great. He does small things in a great way. He could do great things as well if
he did but undertake them; so can any man; so can you. The Principle of
Power gives us just what we ask of it; if we only undertake little things, it
gives us power for little things; but if try to do great things in a great way it
gives us all the power there is.

But beware of undertaking great things in a small way; of that we shall speak
further on.
There are two mental attitudes a man may take. One makes him like a
football. It has resilience and reacts strongly when force is applied to it, but it
originates nothing; it never acts of itself. There is no power within it. Men of
this type are controlled by circumstances and environment; their destinies are
decided by things external to them. The Principle of Power within them is
never really active at all. They never speak or act from within. The other
attitude makes man like a flowing spring. Power comes out from the center of
him. He has within him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. He
radiates force; he is felt by his environment. The Principle of Power in him is
in constant action. He is self-active. "He hath life in himself."
No greater good can come to any man or woman than to become self- active.
All the experiences of life are designed by Providence to force men and
women into self-activity; to compel them to cease being creatures of
circumstances and master their environment. In his lowest stage, man is the
child of chance and circumstance and the slave of fear. His acts are all
reactions resulting from the impingement upon him of forces in his
environment. He acts only as he is acted upon; he originates nothing. But the
lowest savage has within him a Principle of Power sufficient to master all that
he fears; and if he learns this and becomes self-active, he becomes as one of
the gods.
The awakening of the Principle of Power in man is the real conversion; the
passing from death to life. It is when the dead hear the voice of the Son of
Man and come forth and live. It is the Resurrection and the life. When it is
awakened, man becomes a son of the Highest and all power is given to him in
heaven and on earth.
Nothing was ever in any man that is not in you; no man ever had more
spiritual or mental power than you can attain, or did greater things than you
can accomplish. You can become what you want to be.

Chapter 2
Heredity and Opportunity
You are not barred from attaining greatness by heredity. No matter who or
what your ancestors may have been or how unlearned or lowly their station,
the upward way is open to you. There is no such thing as inheriting a fixed
mental position; no matter how small the mental capital we receive from our
parents, it may be increased; no man is born incapable of growth.
Heredity counts for something. We are born with subconscious mental
tendencies; as, for instance, a tendency to melancholy, or cowardice, or to ill-
temper; but all these subconscious tendencies may be overcome. When the
real man awakens and comes forth he can throw them off very easily.
Nothing of this kind need keep you down; if you have inherited undesirable
mental tendencies, you can eliminate them and put desirable tendencies in
their places. An inherited mental trait is a habit of thought of your father or
mother impressed upon your subconscious mind; you can substitute the
opposite impression by forming the opposite habit of thought. You can
substitute a habit of cheerfulness for a tendency to despondency; you can
overcome cowardice or ill temper.
Heredity may count for something, too, in an inherited conformation of the
skull. There is something in phrenology, if not so much as its exponents
claim for it; it is true that the different faculties are localized in the brain, and
that the power of a faculty depends upon the number of active brain cells in
its area. A faculty whose brain area is large is likely to act with more power
than one whose cranial section is small; hence persons with certain
conformations of the skull show talent as musicians, orators, mechanics, and
so on. It has been argued from this that a man's cranial formation must, to a
large extent, decide his station in life, but this is an error. It has been found
that a small brain section, with many fine and active cells, gives as powerful
expression to faculty as a larger brain with coarser cells; and it has been
found that by turning the Principle of Power into any section of the brain,
with the will and purpose to develop a particular talent, the brain cells may be
multiplied indefinitely. Any faculty, power, or talent you possess, no matter

how small or rudimentary, may be increased; you can multiply the brain cells
in this particular area until it acts a powerfully as you wish. It is true that you
can act most easily through those faculties that are now most largely
developed; you can do, with the least effort, the things which "come
naturally"; but it is also true that if you will make the necessary effort you
can develop any talent. You can do what you desire to do and become what
you want to be. When you fix upon some ideal and proceed as hereinafter
directed; all the power of your being is turned into the faculties required in
the realization of that ideal; more blood and nerve force go to the
corresponding sections of the brain, and the cells are quickened, increased,
and multiplied in number. The proper use of the mind of man will build a
brain capable of doing what the mind wants to do.
The brain does not make the man; the man makes the brain.
Your place in life is not fixed by heredity.
Nor are you condemned to the lower levels by circumstances or lack of
opportunity. The Principle of Power in man is sufficient for all the
requirements of his soul. No possible combination of circumstances can keep
him down, if he makes his personal attitude right and determines to rise. The
power which has formed man and purposed him for growth also controls the
circumstances of society, industry, and government; and this power is never
divided against itself. The power which is in you is in the things around you,
and when you begin to move forward, the things will arrange themselves for
your advantage, as described in the later chapters of this book. Man was
formed for growth, and all things external were designed to promote his
growth. No sooner does a man awaken his soul and enter in the advancing
way than he finds that not only is God for him, but nature, society, and his
fellow men are for him also; and all things work together for his good if he
obeys the law. Poverty is no bar to greatness, for poverty can always be
removed. Martin Luther, as a child, sang in the streets for bread. Linnaeus the
naturalist, had only forty dollars with which to educate himself; he mended
has own shoes and often had to beg meals from his friends. Hugh Miller,
apprenticed to a stone mason, began to study geology in a quarry. George
Stephenson, inventor of the locomotive engine, and one of the greatest of
civil engineers, was a coal miner, working in a mine, when he awakened and

began to think. James Watt was a sickly child,and was not strong enough to
be sent to school. Abraham Lincoln was a poor boy. In each of these cases we
see a Principle of Power in the man which lifts him above all opposition and
adversity.
There is a Principle of Power in you; if you use it and apply it in a certain
way you can overcome all heredity, and master all circumstances and
conditions and become a great and powerful personality.

Chapter 3
The Source of Power
Man's brain, body, mind, faculties, and talents are the mere instruments he
uses in demonstrating greatness; in themselves they do not make him great. A
man may have a large brain and a good mind, strong faculties, and brilliant
talents, and yet he is not a great man unless he uses all these in a great way.
That quality which enables man to use his abilities in a great way makes him
great; and to that quality we give the name of wisdom. Wisdom is the
essential basis of greatness.
Wisdom is the power to perceive the best ends to aim at and the best means
for reaching those ends. It is the power to perceive the right thing to do. The
man who is wise enough to know the right thing to do, who is good enough to
wish to do only the right thing, and who is able and strong enough to do the
right thing is a truly great man. He will instantly become marked as a
personality of power in any community and men will delight to do him
honor.
Wisdom is dependent upon knowledge. Where there is complete ignorance
there can be no wisdom, no knowledge of the right thing to do. Man's
knowledge is comparatively limited and so his wisdom must be small, unless
he can connect his mind with a knowledge greater than his own and draw
from it, by inspiration, the wisdom that his own limitations deny him. This he
can do; this is what the really great men and women have done. Man's
knowledge is limited and uncertain; therefore he cannot have wisdom in
himself.
Only God knows all truth; therefore only God can have Real wisdom or know
the right thing to do at all times, and man can receive wisdom from God. I
proceed to give you an illustration: Abraham Lincoln had limited education;
but he had the power to perceive truth. In Lincoln we see pre-eminently
apparent the fact that real wisdom consists in knowing the right thing to do at
all times and under all circumstances; in having the will to do the right thing,
and in having talent and ability enough to be competent and able to do the

right thing. Back in the days of the abolition agitation, and during the
compromise period, when all other men were more or less confused as to
what was right or as to what ought to be done, Lincoln was never uncertain.
He saw through the superficial arguments of the pro-slavery men; he saw,
also, the impracticability and fanaticism of the abolitionists; he saw the right
ends to aim at and he saw the best means to attain those ends. It was because
men recognized that he perceived truth and knew the right thing to do that
they made him president. Any man who develops the power to perceive truth,
and who can show that he always knows the right thing to do and that he can
be trusted to do the right thing, will be honored and advanced; the whole
world is looking eagerly for such men.
When Lincoln became president he was surrounded by a multitude of so-
called able advisors, hardly any two of whom were agreed. At times they
were all opposed to his policies; at times almost the whole North was
opposed to what he proposed to do. But he saw the truth when others were
misled by appearances; his judgement was seldom or never wrong. He was at
once the ablest statesman and the best soldier of the period. Where did he, a
comparatively unlearned man, get this wisdom? It was not due to some
peculiar formation of his skull or to some fineness of texture of his brain. It
was not due to some physical characteristic. It was not even a quality of mind
due to superior reasoning power. Knowledge of truth is not often reached by
the processes of reason. It was due to a spiritual insight. He perceived truth,
but where did he perceive it, and whence did the perception come? We see
something similar in Washington, whose faith and courage, due to his
perception of truth, held the colonies together during the long and often
apparently hopeless struggle of the Revolution. We see something of the
same thing in the phenomenal genius of Napoleon, who always knew, in
military matters, the best means to adopt. We see that the greatness of
Napoleon was in nature rather than Napoleon, and we discover back of
Washington and Lincoln something greater than either Washington or
Lincoln. We see the same thing in all great men and women. They perceive
truth; but truth cannot be perceived until it exists; and there can be no truth
until there is a mind to perceive it. Truth does not exist apart from mind.
Washington and Lincoln were in touch and communication with a mind
which knew all knowledge and contained all truth. So of all who manifest
wisdom.

Wisdom is obtained by reading the mind of God.

Chapter 4
The Mind of God
There is a Cosmic Intelligence which is in all things and through all things.
This is the one real substance. From it all things proceed. It is Intelligent
Substance or Mind Stuff. It is God. Where there is no substance there can be
no intelligence; for where there is no substance there is nothing. Where there
is thought there must be a substance which thinks. Thought cannot be
function, for function is motion, and it is inconceivable that mere motion
should think. Thought cannot be vibration, for vibration is motion, and that
motion should be intelligent is not thinkable. Motion is nothing but the
moving of substance; if there be intelligence shown it must be in the
substance and not in the motion. Thought cannot be the result of motions in
the brain; if thought is in the brain it must be in the brain's substance and not
in the motions which brain substance makes.
But thought is not in the brain substance, for brain substance, without life, is
quite unintelligent and dead. Thought is in the life-principle which animates
the brain; in the spirit substance, which is the real man. The brain does not
think, the man thinks and expresses his thought through the brain.
There is a spirit substance which thinks. Just as the spirit substance of man
permeates his body, and thinks and knows in the body, so the Original Spirit
Substance, God, permeates all nature and thinks and knows in nature. Nature
is as intelligent as man, and knows more than man; nature knows all things.
The All-Mind has been in touch with all things from the beginning; and it
contains all knowledge. Man's experience covers a few things, and these
things man knows; but God's experience covers all things that have ever
happened since the creation, from the wreck of a planet or the passing of a
comet to the fall of a sparrow. All that is and all that has been are present in
the Intelligence which is wrapped around us and enfolds us and presses upon
us from every side.

All the encyclopedias men have written are but trivial affairs compared to the
vast knowledge held by the mind in which men live, move, and have their
being.
The truths men perceive by inspiration are thoughts held in this mind. If they
were not thoughts men could not perceive them, for they would have no
existence; and they could not exist as thoughts unless there is a mind for them
to exist in; and a mind can be nothing else than a substance which thinks.
Man is thinking substance, a portion of the Cosmic Substance; but man is
limited, while the Cosmic Intelligence from which he sprang, which Jesus
calls the Father, is unlimited. All intelligence, power, and force come from
the Father. Jesus recognized this and stated it very plainly. Over and over
again he ascribed all his wisdom and power to his unity with the Father, and
to his perceiving the thoughts of God. "My Father and I are one." This was
the foundation of his knowledge and power. He showed the people the
necessity of becoming spiritually awakened; of hearing his voice and
becoming like him. He compared the unthinking man who is the prey and
sport of circumstances to the dead man in a tomb, and besought him to hear
and come forth. "God is spirit," he said;
"be born again, become spiritually awake, and you may see his kingdom.
Hear my voice; see what I am and what I do, and come forth and live. The
words I speak are spirit and life: accept them and they will cause a well of
water to spring up within you. Then you will have life within yourself."
"I do what I see the Father do," he said, meaning that he could read the
thoughts of God. "The Father showeth all things to the son." "If any man has
the will to do the will of God, he shall know truth." "My teaching is not my
own, but his that sent me." "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free." "The spirit shall guide you into all truth."
We are immersed in mind and that mind contains all knowledge and all truth.
It is seeking to give us this knowledge, for our Father delights to give good
gifts to his children. The prophets and seers and great men and women, past
and present, were made great by what they received from God, not by what
they were taught from men. This limitless reservoir of wisdom and power is

open to you; you can draw upon it as you will, according to your needs. You
can make yourself what you desire to be; you can do what you wish to do;
you can have what you want. To accomplish this you must learn to become
one with the Father so that you may perceive truth; so that you may have
wisdom and know the right ends to seek and the right means to use to attain
those ends, and so that you may secure power and ability to use the means. In
closing this chapter resolve that you will now lay aside all else and
concentrate upon the attainment of conscious unity with God.
"Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home,
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;
And when I am stretched beneath the pines,
Where the evening star so holy shines,
I laugh at the lore and pride of man,
At the Sophist schools and the learned clan;
For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?"

Chapter 5
Preparation
"Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you."
If you become like God you can read his thoughts; and if you do not you will
find the inspirational perception of truth impossible. You can never become a
great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is
impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive
truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such
mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God.
If you are poor, or if you are anxious about business or financial matters, you
are recommended to study carefully the first volume of this series, "The
Science of Getting Rich." That will present to you a solution for your
problems of this nature, no matter how large or how complicated they may
seem to be. There is not the least cause for worry about financial affairs;
every person who wills to do so may rise above want, have all he needs, and
become rich. The same source upon which you propose to draw for mental
unfoldment and spiritual power is at your services for the supply of all your
material wants. Study this truth until it is fixed in your thoughts and until
anxiety is banished from your mind; enter the Certain Way, which leads to
material riches.
Again, if you are anxious or worried about your health, realize it is possible
for you to attain perfect health so that you may have strength sufficient for all
that you wish to do and more. That Intelligence which stands ready to give
you wealth and mental and spiritual power will rejoice to give you health
also. Perfect health is yours for the asking, if you will only obey the simple
laws of life and live aright. Conquer ill- health and cast out fear.
But it is not enough to rise above financial and physical anxiety and worry;
you must rise above moral evil-doing as well. Sound your inner
consciousness now for the motives which actuate you and make sure they are
right. You must cast out lust, and cease to be ruled by appetite, and you must

begin to govern appetite. You must eat only to satisfy hunger, never for
gluttonous pleasure, and in all things you must make the flesh obey the spirit.
You must lay aside greed; have no unworthy motive in your desire to become
rich and powerful. It is legitimate and right to desire riches, if you want them
for the sake of the soul, but not if you desire them for the lusts of the flesh.
Cast out pride and vanity; have no thought of trying to rule over others or of
outdoing them. This is a vital point; there is no temptation so insidious as the
selfish desire to rule over others. Nothing so appeals to the average man or
woman as to sit in the uppermost places at feasts, to be respectfully saluted in
the market place, and to be called Rabbi, Master. To exercise some sort of
control over others is the secret motive of every selfish person. The struggle
for power over others is the battle of the competitive world, and you must rise
above that world and its motives and aspirations and seek only for life. Cast
out envy; you can have all that you want, and you need not envy any man
what he has. Above all things, see to it that you do not hold malice or enmity
toward any one; to do so cuts you off from the mind whose treasures you
seek to make your own. "He that loveth not his brother, loveth not God." Lay
aside all narrow personal ambition and determine to seek the highest good
and to be swayed by no unworthy selfishness.
Go over all the foregoing and set these moral temptations out of your heart
one by one; determine to keep them out. Then resolve that you will not only
abandon all evil thought but that you will forsake all deeds, habits, and
courses of action which do not commend themselves to your noblest ideals.
This is supremely important; make this resolution with all the power of your
soul, and you are ready for the next step toward greatness, which you will
find explained in the following chapter.

Chapter 6
The Social Point of View
"Without faith it is impossible to please God," and without faith it is
impossible for you to become great. The distinguishing characteristic of all
really great men and women is an unwavering faith. We see this in Lincoln
during the dark days of the war; we see it in Washington at Valley Forge; and
we see it in Livingstone the crippled missionary, threading the mazes of the
dark continent, his soul aflame with the determination to let in the light upon
the accursed slave trade, which his soul abhorred; we see it in Luther, and in
Frances Willard, in every man and woman who has obtained a place on the
muster roll of the great ones of the world.
Faith - not a faith in one's self or in one's own powers but faith in principle; in
the Something Great which upholds right, and which may be relied upon to
give us the victory in due time. Without this faith it is not possible for any
one to rise to real greatness. The man who has no faith in principle will
always be a small man. Whether you have this faith or not depends upon your
point of view. You must learn to see the world as being produced by
evolution; as a something which is evolving and becoming, not as a finished
work. Millions of years ago God worked with very low and crude forms of
life; low and crude, yet each perfect after its kind. Higher and more complex
organisms, animal and vegetable, appeared through the successive ages; the
earth passed through stage after stage in its unfoldment, each stage perfect in
itself, and to be succeeded by a higher one. What I wish you to note is that
the so-called "lower organisms" are as perfect after their kind as the higher
ones; that the world in the Eocene period was perfect for that period; it was
perfect, but God's work was not finished. This is true of the world to-day.
Physically, socially, and industrially it is all good, and it is all perfect. It is
not complete anywhere or in any part, but so far as the handiwork of God has
gone it is perfect.
THIS MUST BE YOUR POINT OF VIEW: THAT THE WORLD AND
ALL IT CONTAINS IS PERFECT, THOUGH NOT COMPLETED.

"All's right with the world." That is the great fact. There is nothing wrong
with anything; there is nothing wrong with anybody. All the facts of life you
must contemplate from this standpoint. There is nothing wrong with nature.
Nature is a great advancing presence, working beneficially for the happiness
of all. All things in Nature are good; she has no evil. She is not complete, for
creation is still unfinished, but she is going on to give to man even more
bountifully than she has given to him in the past. Nature is a partial
expression of God, and God is love. She is perfect but not complete.
So of human society and government. What though there are trusts and
combinations of capital and strikes and lockouts and so on. All these things
are part of the forward movement; they are incidental to the evolutionary
process of completing society. When it is complete there will be no more of
these inharmonies; but it cannot be completed without them. J. P. Morgan is
as necessary to the coming social order as the strange animals of the age of
reptiles were to the life of the succeeding period, and just as these animals
were perfect after their own kind, so Morgan is perfect after his kind. Behold
it is all very good. See society, government, and industry as being perfect
now, and as advancing rapidly toward being complete; then you will
understand that there is nothing to fear, no cause for anxiety, nothing to
worry about. Never complain of any of these things. They are perfect; this is
the very best possible world for the stage of development man has reached.
This will sound like rank folly to many, perhaps to most people. "What!" they
will say, "are not child labor and the exploitation of men and women in filthy
and unsanitary factories evil things? Are not saloons evil? Do you mean to
say that we shall accept all these and call them good?"
Child labor and similar things are no more evil than the way of living and the
habits and practices of the cave dweller were evil. His ways were those of the
savage stage of man's growth, and for that stage they were perfect. Our
industrial practices are those of the savage stage of industrial development,
and they are also perfect. Nothing better is possible until we cease to be
mental savages in industry and business, and become men and women. This
can only come about by the rise of the whole race to a higher viewpoint. And
this can only come about by the rise of such individuals here and there as are

ready for the higher viewpoint. The cure for all these inharmonies lies not
with the masters or employers but with the workers themselves. Whenever
they reach a higher viewpoint, whenever they shall desire to do so, they can
establish complete brotherhood and harmony in industry; they have the
numbers and the power. They are getting now what they desire. Whenever
they desire more in the way of a higher, purer, more harmonious life, they
will receive more. True, they want more now, but they only want more of the
things that make for animal enjoyment, and so industry remains in the
savage, brutal, animal stage; when the workers begin to rise to the mental
plane of living and ask for more of the things that make for the life of the
mind and soul, industry will at once be raised above the plane of savagery
and brutality. But it is perfect now upon this plane; behold, it is all very good.
So of saloons and dens of vice. If a majority of the people desire these things,
it is right and necessary that they should have them. When a majority desire a
world without such discords, they will create such a world. So long as men
and women are on the plane of bestial thought, so long the social order will
be in part disorder, and will show bestial manifestations. The people make
society what it is, and as the people rise above the bestial thought, society
will rise above the beastly in its manifestations. But a society which thinks in
a bestial way must have saloons and dives; it is perfect after its kind, as the
world was in the Eocene period, and very good.
All this does not prevent you from working for better things. You can work to
complete an unfinished society, instead of to renovate a decaying one; and
you can work with a better heart and a more helpful spirit. It will make an
immense difference with your faith and spirit whether you look upon
civilization as a good thing which is becoming better or as a bad and evil
thing which is decaying. One viewpoint gives you an advancing and
expanding mind and the other gives you a descending and decreasing mind.
One viewpoint will make you grow greater and the other will inevitably
cause you to grow smaller. One will enable you to work for the eternal
things; to do large works in a great way toward the completing of all that is
incomplete and inharmonious; and the other will make you a mere patchwork
reformer, working almost without hope to save a few lost souls from what
you will grow to

consider a lost and doomed world. So you see it makes a vast difference to
you, this matter of the social viewpoint. "All's right with the world. Nothing
can possibly be wrong but my personal attitude, and I will make that right. I
will see the facts of nature and all the events, circumstances, and conditions
of society, politics, government, and industry from the highest viewpoint. It is
all perfect, though incomplete. It is all the handiwork of God; behold, it is all
very good."

Chapter 7
The Individual Point of View
Important as the matter of your point of view for the facts of social life is, it
is of less moment than your viewpoint for your fellow men, for your
acquaintances, friends, relatives, your immediate family, and most of all,
yourself. You must learn not to look upon the world as a lost and decaying
thing but as a something perfect and glorious which is going on to a most
beautiful completeness; and you must learn to see men and women not as lost
and accursed things, but as perfect beings advancing to become complete.
There are no "bad" or "evil" people. An engine which is on the rails pulling a
heavy train is perfect after its kind, and it is good. The power of steam which
drives it is good. Let a broken rail throw the engine into the ditch, and it does
not become bad or evil by being displaced; it is a perfectly good engine, but
off the track. The power of steam which drives it into the ditch and wrecks it
is not evil, but a perfectly good power. So that which is misplaced or applied
in an incomplete or partial way is not evil. There are no evil people; there are
perfectly good people who are off the track, but they do not need
condemnation or punishment; they only need to get upon the rails again.
That which is undeveloped or incomplete often appears to us as evil because
of the way we have trained ourselves to think. The root of a bulb which shall
produce a white lily is an unsightly thing; one might look upon it with
disgust. But how foolish we should be to condemn the bulb for its appearance
when we know the lily is within it. The root is perfect after its kind; it is a
perfect but incomplete lily, and so we must learn to look upon every man and
woman, no matter how unlovely in outward manifestation; they are perfect in
their stage of being and the are becoming complete. Behold, it is all very
good.
Once we come into a comprehension of this fact and arrive at this point of
view, we lose all desire to find fault with people, to judge them, criticise
them, or condemn them. We no longer work as those who are saving lost
souls, but as those who are among the angels, working out the completion of
a glorious heaven. We are born of the spirit and we see the kingdom of God.

We no longer see men as trees walking, but our vision is complete. We have
nothing but good words to say. It is all good; a great and glorious humanity
coming to completeness. And in our association with men this puts us into an
expansive and enlarging attitude of mind; we see them as great beings and we
begin to deal with them and their affairs in a great way. But if we fall to the
other point of view and see a lost and degenerate race we shrink into the
contracting mind; and our dealings with men and their affairs will be in a
small and contracted way. Remember to hold steadily to this point of view; if
you do you cannot fail to begin at once to deal with your acquaintances and
neighbor and with your own family as a great personality deals with men.
This same viewpoint must be the one from which you regard yourself. You
must always see yourself as a great advancing soul. Learn to say: "There is
THAT in me of which I am made, which knows no imperfection, weakness,
or sickness. The world is incomplete, but God in my own consciousness is
both perfect and complete. Nothing can be wrong but my own personal
attitude, and my own personal attitude can be wrong only when I disobey
THAT which is within. I am a perfect manifestation of God so far as I have
gone, and I will press on to be complete. I will trust and not be afraid." When
you are able to say this understandingly you will have lost all fear and you
will be far advanced upon the road to development of a great and powerful
personality.

Chapter 8
Consecration
Having attained to the viewpoint which puts you into the right relations with
the world and with your fellow men, the next step is consecration; and
consecration in its true sense simply means obedience to the soul. You have
that within you which is ever impelling you toward the upward and
advancing way; and that impelling something is the divine Principle of
Power; you must obey it without question. No one will deny the statement
that if you are to be great, the greatness must be a manifestation of something
within; nor can you question that this something must be the very greatest
and highest that is within. It is not the mind, or the intellect, or the reason.
You cannot be great if you go no farther back for principle than to your
reasoning power. Reason knows neither principle nor morality. Your reason
is like a lawyer in that it will argue for either side. The intellect of a thief will
plan robbery and murder as readily as the intellect of a saint will plan a great
philanthropy. Intellect helps us to see the best means and manner of doing the
right thing, but intellect never shows us the right thing. Intellect and reason
serve the selfish man for his selfish ends as readily as they serve the unselfish
man for his unselfish ends. Use intellect and reason without regard to
principle, and you may become known as a very able person, but you will
never become known as a person whose life shows the power of real
greatness. There is too much training of the intellect and reasoning powers
and too little training in obedience to the soul. This is the only thing that can
be wrong with your personal attitude - when it fails to be one of obedience to
the Principle of Power.
By going back to your own center you can always find the pure idea of right
for every relationship. To be great and to have power it is only necessary to
conform your life to the pure idea as you find it in the GREAT WITHIN.
Every compromise on this point is made at the expense of a loss of power.
This you must remember.

There are many ideas in your mind which you have outgrown, and which, by
force of habit, you still permit to dictate the actions of your life. Cease all
this; abandon everything you have outgrown. There are many ignoble
customs, social and other, which you may still follow, although you know
they tend to dwarf and belittle you and keep you acting in a small way. Rise
above all this. I do not say that you should absolutely disregard all
conventionalities, or the commonly accepted standards of right and wrong.
You cannot do this; but you can deliver your soul from most of the narrow
restrictions which bind the majority of your fellow men. Do not give your
time and strength to the support of obsolete institutions, religious or
otherwise; do not be bound by creeds in which you do not believe. Be free.
You have perhaps formed some sensual habits of mind or body; abandon
them. You still indulge in distrustful fears that things will go wrong, or that
people will betray you, or mistreat you; get above all of them. You still act
selfishly in many ways and on many occasions; cease to do so. Abandon all
these, and in place of them put the best actions you can form a conception of
in your mind. If you desire to advance, and you are not doing so, remember
that it can be only because your thought is better than your practice. You
must do as well as you think.
Let your thoughts be ruled by principle, and then live up to your thoughts.
Let your attitude in business, in politics, in neighborhood affairs, and in your
own home be the expression of the best thoughts you can think. Let your
manner toward all men and women, great and small, and especially to your
own family circle, always be the most kindly, gracious, and courteous you
can picture in your imagination. Remember your viewpoint; you are a god in
the company of gods and must conduct yourself accordingly.
The steps to complete consecration are few and simple. You cannot be ruled
from below if you are to be great; you must rule from above. Therefore you
cannot be governed by physical impulse; you must bring your body into
subjection to the mind; but your mind, without principle, may lead you into
selfishness and immoral ways; you must put the mind into subjection to the
soul, and your soul is limited by the boundaries of your knowledge; you must
put it into subjection to that Oversoul which needeth no searching of the
understanding but before whose eye all things are spread. That constitutes

consecration. Say: "I surrender my body to be ruled by my mind; I surrender
my mind to be governed by my soul, and I surrender my soul to the guidance
of God." Make this consecration complete and thorough, and you have taken
the second great step in the way of greatness and power.

Chapter 9
Identification
Having recognized God as the advancing presence in nature, society, and
your fellow men, and harmonized yourself with all of these, and having
consecrated yourself to that within you which impels toward the greatest and
the highest, the next step is to become aware of and recognize fully the fact
that the Principle of Power within you is God himself. You must consciously
identify yourself with the Highest. This is not some false or untrue position to
be assumed; it is a fact to be recognized. You are already one with God; you
want to be consciously aware of it.
There is one substance, the source of all things, and this substance has within
itself the power which creates all things; all power is inherent in it. This
substance is conscious and thinks; it works with perfect understanding and
intelligence. You know that this is so, because you know that substance exists
and that consciousness exists; and that it must be substance which is
conscious. Man is conscious and thinks; man is substance. He must be
substance, else he is nothing and does not exist at all. If man is substance and
thinks, as is conscious, then he is Conscious Substance. It is not conceivable
that there should be more than one Conscious Substance; so man is the
original substance, the source of all life and power embodied in a physical
form. Man cannot be something different from God. Intelligence is one and
the same everywhere, and must be everywhere an attribute of the same
substance. There cannot be one kind of intelligence in God and another kind
of intelligence in man; intelligence can only be in intelligent substance. And
Intelligent Substance is God. Man is of one stuff with God, and so all the
talents, powers, and possibilities that are in God are in man; not in a few
exceptional men but in every man. "All power is given to man, in heaven and
on earth." "Is it not written, ye are gods?" The Principle of Power in man is
man himself, and man himself is God. But while man is original substance,
and has within him all power and possibilities, his consciousness is limited.
He does not know all there is to know, and so he is liable to error and
mistake. To save himself from these he must unite his mind to That outside
him which does know all; he must become consciously one with God. There

is a Mind surrounding him on every side, closer than breathing, nearer than
hands and feet, and in this mind is the memory of all that has ever happened,
from the greatest convulsions of nature in prehistoric days to the fall of a
sparrow in this present time; and all that is in existence now as well. Held in
the Mind is the great purpose which is behind all nature, and so it knows
what is going to be. Man is surrounded by a Mind which knows all there is to
know, past, present, and to come. Everything that men have said or done or
written is present there. Man is of one identical stuff with this Mind; he
proceeded from it; and he can so identify himself with it that he may know
what it knows. "My Father is greater than I," said Jesus, "I come from him."
"I and my Father are one. He showeth the son all things." "The spirit shall
guide you into all truth."
Your identification of yourself with the Infinite must be accomplished by
conscious recognition on your part. Recognizing it as a fact, that there is only
God, and that all intelligence is the one substance, you must affirm somewhat
after this wise: "There is only one and that one is everywhere. I surrender
myself to conscious unity with the highest. Not I, but the Father. I will to be
one with the Supreme and to lead the divine life. I am one with infinite
consciousness; there is but one mind, and I am that mind. I that speak unto
you am he."
If you have been thorough in the work as outlined in the preceding chapters;
if you have attained to the true viewpoint, and if your consecration is
complete, you will not find conscious identification hard to attain; and once it
is attained, the power you seek is yours, for you have made yourself one with
all the power there is.

Chapter 10
Idealization
You are a thinking center in original substance, and the thoughts of original
substance have creative power; whatever is formed in its thought and held as
a thought-form must come into existence as a visible and so-called material
form, and a thought-form held in thinking substance is a reality, it is a real
thing, whether is has yet become visible to the mortal eye or not. This is a
fact that you should impress upon your understanding - that a thought held in
thinking substance is a real thing; a form, and has actual existence, although
it is not visible to you. You internally take the form in which you think of
yourself; and you surround yourself with the invisible forms of those things
with which you associate in your thoughts.
If you desire a thing, picture it clearly and hold the picture steadily in mind
until it becomes a definite thought-form; and if your practices are not such as
to separate you from God, the thing you want will come to you in material
form. It must do so in obedience to the law by which the universe was
created.
Make no thought-form of yourself in connection with disease or sickness, but
form a conception of health. Make a thought-form of yourself as strong and
hearty and perfectly well; impress this thought- form on the creative
intelligence, and if your practices are not in violation of the laws by which
the physical body is built, your thought- form will manifest in your flesh.
This also is certain; it comes by obedience to law.
Make a thought-form of yourself as you desire to be, and set your ideal as
near to perfection as your imagination is capable of forming the conception.
Let me illustrate: If a young law student wishes to become great, let him
picture himself (while attending to the viewpoint, consecration, and
identification, as previously directed) as a great lawyer, pleading his case
with matchless eloquence and power before the judge and jury; as having an
unlimited command of truth, of knowledge, and of wisdom. Let him picture
himself as the great lawyer in every possible situation and contingency; while

he is still only the student in all circumstances, let him never forget or fail to
be the great lawyer in his thought-form of himself. As the thought-form
grows more definite and habitual in his mind, the creative energies, both
within and without, are set to work. He begins to manifest the form from
within; and all the essentials without, which go into the picture, begin to be
impelled toward him. He makes himself into the image and God works with
him; nothing can prevent him from becoming what he wishes to be.
In the same general way the musical student pictures himself as performing
perfect harmonies, and as delighting vast audiences; the actor forms the
highest conception he is capable of in regard to his art, and applies this
conception to himself. The farmer and mechanic do exactly the same thing.
Fix upon your ideal of what you wish to make of yourself; consider well and
be sure that you make the right choice; that is, the one which will be most
satisfactory to you in a general way. Do not pay to much attention to the
advice or suggestions of those around you; do not believe that any one can
know, better than yourself, what is right for you. Listen to what others have
to say, but always form your own conclusions. DO NOT LET OTHER
PEOPLE DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE TO BE. BE WHAT YOU FEEL
THAT YOU WANT TO BE.
Do not be misled by a false notion of obligation or duty. You can owe no
possible obligation or duty to others which should prevent you from making
the most of yourself. Be true to yourself, and you cannot then be false to any
man. When you have fully decided what thing you want to be, form the
highest conception of that thing that you are capable of imagining, and make
that conception a thought-form. Hold that thought- form as a fact, as the real
truth about yourself, and believe in it.
Close your ears to all adverse suggestions. Never mind if people call you a
fool and a dreamer. Dream on. Remember that Bonaparte, the half-starved
lieutenant, always saw himself as the general of armies and the master of
France, and he became in outward realization what he held himself to be in
mind. So likewise with you. Attend carefully to all that has been said in the
preceding chapters, and act as directed in the following ones, and you will
become what you want to be.

Chapter 11
Realization
If you were to stop with the close of the last chapter, however, you would
never become great; you would be indeed a mere dreamer of dreams, a
castle-builder. Too many do stop there; they do not understand the necessity
for present action in realizing the vision and bringing the thought-form into
manifestation. Two things are necessary. First, the making of the thought
form, and, second, the actual appropriation to yourself of all that goes into
and around the thought-form. We have discussed the first, now we will
proceed to give directions for the second. When you have made your thought-
form, you are already, in your interior, what you want to be; next you must
become externally what you want to be. You are already great within, but you
are not yet doing the great things without. You cannot begin, on the instant,
to do the great things; you cannot be before the world the great actor, or
lawyer, or musician, or personality you know yourself to be; no one will
intrust great things to you as yet for you have not made yourself known. But
you can always begin to do small things in a great way.
Here lies the whole secret. You can begin to be great to-day in your own
home, in your store or office, on the street, everywhere; you can begin to
make yourself known as great; and you can do this by doing everything you
do in a great way. You must put the whole power of your great soul into
every act, however small and commonplace, and so reveal to your family,
your friends, and neighbors what you really are. Do not brag or boast of
yourself; do not go about telling people what a great personage you are;
simply live in a great way. No one will believe you if you tell him you are a
great man, but no one can doubt your greatness if you show it in your actions.
In your domestic circle be so just, so generous, so courteous, and kindly that
your family, your wife, husband, children, brothers, and sisters shall know
that you are a great and noble soul. In all your relations with men be great,
just, generous, courteous, and kindly. The great are never otherwise. This for
your attitude.

Next, and most important, you must have absolute faith in your own
perceptions of truth. Never act in haste or hurry; be deliberate in everything;
wait until you feel that you know the true way. And when you do feel that
you know the true way, be guided by your own faith though all the world
shall disagree with you. If you do not believe what God tells you in little
things, you will never draw upon his wisdom and knowledge in larger things.
When you feel deeply that a certain act is the right act, do it and have perfect
faith that the consequences will be good. When you are deeply impressed that
a certain thing is true, no matter what the appearances to the contrary may be,
accept that thing as true and act accordingly. The one way to develop a
perception of truth in large things is to trust absolutely to your present
perception of truth in small things. Remember that you are seeking to develop
this very power or faculty - the perception of truth; you are learning to read
the thoughts of God. Nothing is great and nothing is small in the sight of
Omnipotence; he holds the sun in its place, but he also notes a sparrow's fall
and numbers the hairs of your head. God is as much interested in the little
matters of everyday life as he is in the affairs of nations. You can perceive
truth about family and neighborhood affairs as well as about matters of
statecraft. And the way to begin is to have perfect faith in the truth in these
small matters, as it is revealed to you from day to day. When you feel deeply
impelled to take a course which seems contrary to all reason and worldly
judgement, take that course. Listen to the suggestions and advice of others,
but always do what you feel deeply in the within to be the true thing to do.
Rely with absolute faith, at all times, on your own perception of truth; but be
sure that you listen to God - that you do not act in haste, fear, or anxiety.
Rely upon your perception of truth in all facts and circumstances of life. If
you deeply feel that a certain man will be in a certain place on a certain day,
go there with perfect faith to meet him; he will be there, no matter how
unlikely it may seem. If you feel sure that certain people are making certain
combinations, or doing certain things, act in the faith that they are doing
those things. If you feel sure of the truth of any circumstance or happening,
near or distant, past, present, or to come, trust in your perception. You may
make occasional mistakes at first because of your imperfect understanding of
the within; but you will soon be guided almost invariably right. Soon your
family and friends will begin to defer, more and more, to your judgement and
to be guided by you. Soon your neighbors and townsmen will be coming to

you for counsel and advice; soon you will be recognized as one who is great
in small things, and you will be called upon more and more to take charge of
larger things. All that is necessary is to be guided absolutely, in all things, by
your inner light, your perception of truth. Obey your soul, have perfect faith
in yourself.
Never think of yourself with doubt or distrust, or as one who makes mistakes.
"If I judge, my judgement is just, for I seek not honor from men, but from the
Father only."

Chapter 12
Hurry and Habit
No doubt you have many problems, domestic, social, physical, and financial,
which seem to you to be pressing for instant solution. You have debts which
must be paid, or other obligations which must be met; you are unhappily or
inharmoniously placed, and feel that something must be done at once. Do not
get into a hurry and act from superficial impulses. You can trust God for the
solution of all your personal riddles. There is no hurry. There is only God,
and all is well with the world.
There is an invincible power in you, and the same power is in the things you
want. It is bringing them to you and bringing you to them. This is a thought
you must grasp, and hold continuously - that the same intelligence which is in
you is in the things you desire. They are impelled toward you as strongly and
decidedly as your desire impels you toward them. The tendency, therefore, of
a steadily held thought must be to bring the things you desire to you and to
group them around you. So long as you hold your thought and your faith right
all must go well. Nothing can be wrong but your own personal attitude, and
that will not be wrong if you trust and are not afraid. Hurry is a manifestation
of fear; he who fears not has plenty of time. If you act with perfect faith in
your own perceptions of truth, you will never be too late or too early; and
nothing will go wrong. If things appear to be going wrong, do not get
disturbed in mind; it is only in appearance. Nothing can go wrong in this
world but yourself; and you can go wrong only be getting into the wrong
mental attitude. Whenever you find yourself getting excited, worried, or into
the mental attitude of hurry, sit down and think it over; play a game of some
kind, or take a vacation. Go on a trip, and all will be right when you return.
So surely as you find yourself in the mental attitude of haste, just so surely
may you know that you are out of the mental attitude of greatness. Hurry and
fear will instantly cut your connection with the universal mind; you will get
no power, no wisdom, and no information until you are calm. And to fall into
the attitude of hurry will check the action of the Principle of Power within
you. Fear turns strength into weakness.

Remember that poise and power are inseparably associated. The calm and
balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is
the weak one. Whenever you fall into the mental state of hurry you may
know that you have lost the right viewpoint; you are beginning to look upon
the world, or some part of it, as going wrong. At such times read Chapter Six
of this book; consider the fact that this world is perfect, now, with all that it
contains. Nothing is going wrong; nothing can be wrong; be poised, be calm,
be cheerful; have faith in God.
Next, as to habit. It is probable that your greatest difficulty will be to
overcome your old habitual ways of thought, and to form new habits. The
world is ruled by habit. Kings, tyrants, masters, and plutocrats hold their
positions solely because the people have come to habitually accept them.
Things are as they are only because people have formed the habit of
accepting them as they are. When the people change their habitual thought
about governmental, social, and industrial institutions, they will change the
institutions. Habit rules us all.
You have formed, perhaps, the habit of thinking of yourself as a common
person, as one of a limited ability, or as being more or less of a failure.
Whatever you habitually think yourself to be, that you are. You must form,
now, a greater and better habit; you must form a conception of yourself as
being a person of limitless power, and habitually think that you are that
being. It is the habitual, not the periodical thought that decides your destiny.
It will avail you nothing to sit apart for a few moments several times a day to
affirm that you are great, if during all the balance of the day, while you are
about your regular vocation, you think of yourself as not great. No amount of
praying or affirmation will make you great if you still habitually regard
yourself as being small.
The use of prayer and affirmation is to change your habit of thought. Any act,
mental or physical, often repeated, becomes a habit. The purpose of mental
exercises is to repeat certain thoughts over and over until the thinking of
those thoughts becomes constant and habitual. The thoughts we continuously
repeat become convictions. What you must do is to repeat the new thought of
yourself until it is the only way in which you think of yourself. Habitual
thought, and not environment or circumstance, has made you what you are.

Every person has some central idea or thought-form of himself, and by this
idea he classifies and arranges all his facts and external relationships. You are
classifying your facts either according to the idea that you are a great and
strong personality, or according to the idea that you are limited, common, or
weak. If the latter is the case you must change your central idea. Get a new
mental picture of yourself. Do not try to become great by repeating mere
strings of words or superficial formulae; but repeat over and over the
THOUGHT of your own power and ability until you classify external facts,
and decide your place everywhere by this idea. In another chapter will be
found an illustrative mental exercise and further directions on
this point.

Chapter 13
Thought
Greatness is attained only by the thinking of great thoughts. No man can
become great in outward personality until he is great internally; and no man
can be great internally until he THINKS. No amount of education, reading, or
study can make you great without thought; but thought can make you great
with very little study. There are altogether too many people who are trying to
make something of themselves by reading books without thinking; all such
will fail. You are not mentally developed by what you read, but by what you
think about what you read.
Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many
people shrink from it. God has so formed us that we are continuously
impelled to thought; we must either think or engage in some activity to
escape thought. The headlong, continuous chase for pleasure in which most
people spend all their leisure time is only an effort to escape thought. If they
are alone, or if they have nothing amusing to take their attention, as a novel to
read or a show to see, they must think; and to escape from thinking they
resort to novels, shows, and all the endless devices of the purveyors of
amusement. Most people spend the greater part of their leisure time running
away from thought, hence they are where they are. We never move forward
until we begin to think.
Read less and think more. Read about great things and think about great
questions and issues. We have at the present time few really great figures in
the political life of our country; our politicians are a petty lot. There is no
Lincoln, no Webster, no Clay, Calhoun, or Jackson. Why? Because our
present statesmen deal only with sordid and petty issues - questions of dollars
and cents, of expediency and party success, of material prosperity with out
regard to ethical right. Thinking along these lines does not call forth great
souls. The statesmen of Lincoln's time and previous times dealt with
questions of eternal truth; of human rights and justice. Men thought upon
great themes; they thought great thoughts, and they became great men.

Thinking, not mere knowledge or information, makes personality. Thinking
is growth; you cannot think without growing. Every thought engenders
another thought. Write one idea and others will follow until you have written
a page. You cannot fathom your own mind; it has neither bottom or
boundaries. Your first thoughts may be crude; but as you go on thinking you
will use more and more of yourself; you will quicken new brain cells into
activity and you will develop new faculties. Heredity, environment,
circumstances, - all things must give way before you if you practice sustained
and continuous thought. But, on the other hand, if you neglect to think for
yourself and only use other people's thought, you will never know what you
are capable of; and you will end by being incapable of anything.
There can be no real greatness without original thought. All that a man does
outwardly is the expression and completion of his inward thinking. No action
is possible without thought, and no great action is possible until a great
thought has preceded it. Action is the second form of thought, and personality
is the materialization of thought. Environment is the result of thought; things
group themselves or arrange themselves around you according to your
thought. There is, as Emerson says, some central idea or conception of
yourself by which all the facts of your life are arranged and classified.
Change this central idea and you change the arrangement or classification of
all the facts and circumstances of your life. You are what you are because
you think as you do; you are where you are because you think as you do.
You see then the immense importance of thinking about the great essentials
set forth in the preceding chapters. You must not accept them in any
superficial way; you must think about them until they are apart of your
central idea. Go back to the matter of the point of view and consider, in all its
bearings, the tremendous thought that you live in a perfect world among
perfect people, and that nothing can possibly be wrong with you but your
own personal attitude. Think about all this until you fully realize all that it
means to you. Consider that this is God's world and that it is the best of all
possible worlds; that He has brought it thus far toward completion by the
processes of organic, social, and industrial evolution, and that it is going on
to greater completeness and harmony. Consider that there is one great,
perfect, intelligent Principle of Life and Power, causing all the changing

phenomena of the cosmos. Think about all this until you see that it is true,
and until you comprehend how you should live and act as a citizen of such a
perfect whole.
Next, think of the wonderful truth that this great Intelligence is in you; it is
your own intelligence. It is an Inner Light impelling you toward the right
thing and the best thing, the greatest act, and the highest happiness. It is a
Principle of Power in you, giving you all the ability and genius there is. It
will infallibly guide you to the best if you will submit to it and walk in the
light. Consider what is meant by your consecration of yourself when you say:
"I will obey my soul." This is a sentence of tremendous meaning; it must
revolutionize the attitude and behavior of the average person.
Then think of your identification with this Great Supreme; that all its
knowledge is yours, and all its wisdom is yours, for the asking. You are a god
if you think like a god. If you think like a god you cannot fail to act like a
god. Divine thoughts will surely externalize themselves in a divine life.
Thoughts of power will end in a life of power. Great thoughts will manifest in
a great personality. Think well of all this, and then you are ready to act.

Chapter 14
Action at Home
Do not merely think that you are going to become great; think that you are
great now. Do not think that you will begin to act in a great way at some
future time; begin now. Do not think that you will act in a great way when
you reach a different environment; act in a great way where you are now. Do
not think that you will begin to act in a great way when you begin to deal
with great things; begin to deal in a great way with small things. Do not think
that you will begin to be great when you get among more intelligent people,
or among people who understand you better; begin now to deal in a great way
with the people around you.
If you are not in an environment where there is scope for your best powers
and talents you can move in due time; but meanwhile you can be great where
you are. Lincoln was as great when he was a backwoods lawyer as when he
was President; as a backwoods lawyer he did common things in a great way,
and that made him President. Had he waited until he reached Washington to
begin to be great, he would have remained unknown. You are not made great
by the location in which you happen to be, nor by the things with which you
may surround yourself. You are not made great by what you receive from
others, and you can never manifest greatness so long as you depend on
others. You will manifest greatness only when you begin to stand alone.
Dismiss all thought of reliance on externals, whether things, books, or people.
As Emerson said, "Shakespeare will never be made by the study of
Shakespeare." Shakespeare will be made by the thinking of Shakespearean
thoughts.
Never mind how the people around you, including those of your own
household, may treat you. That has nothing at all to do with your being great;
that is, it cannot hinder you from being great. People may neglect you and be
unthankful and unkind in their attitude toward you; does that prevent you
from being great in your manner and attitude toward them?
"Your Father," said Jesus, "is kind to the unthankful and the evil." Would
God be great if he should go away and sulk because people were unthankful

and did not appreciate him? Treat the unthankful and the evil in a great and
perfectly kind way, just as God does.
Do not talk about your greatness; you are really, in essential nature, no
greater than those around you. You may have entered upon a way of living
and thinking which they have yet not yet found, but they are perfect on their
own plane of thought and action. You are entitled to no special honor or
consideration for your greatness. You are a god, but you are among gods.
You will fall into this boastful attitude if you see other people's shortcomings
and failures and compare them with you own virtues and successes; and if
you fall into the boastful attitude of mind, you will cease to be great, and
become small. Think of yourself as a perfect being among perfect beings, and
meet every person as an equal, not as either a superior or an inferior. Give
yourself no airs; great people never do. Ask no honors and seek for no
recognition; honors and recognition will come fast enough if you are entitled
to them.
Begin at home. It is a great person who can always be poised, assured, calm,
and perfectly kind and considerate at home. If your manner and attitude in
your own family are always the best you can think, you will soon become the
one on whom all the others will rely. You will be a tower of strength and a
support in time of trouble. You will be loved and appreciated. At the same
time do not make the mistake of throwing yourself away in the service of
others. The great man respects himself; he serves and helps, but he is never
slavishly servile. You cannot help your family by being a slave to them, or by
doing for them those things which by right they should do for themselves.
You do a person an injury when you wait on him too much. The selfish and
exacting are a great deal better off if their exactions are denied. The ideal
world is not one where there are a lot of people being waited on by other
people; it is a world where everybody waits on himself. Meet all demands,
selfish and otherwise, with perfect kindness and consideration; but do not
allow yourself to be made a slave to the whims, caprices, exactions, or
slavish desires of any member of your family. To do so is not great, and it
works an injury to the other party.
Do not become uneasy over the failures or mistakes of any member of your
family, and feel that you must interfere. Do not be disturbed if others seem to

be going wrong, and feel that you must step in and set them right. Remember
that every person is perfect on his own plane; you cannot improve on the
work of God. Do not meddle with the personal habits and practices of others,
though they are your nearest and dearest; these things are none of your
business. Nothing can be wrong but your own personal attitude; make that
right and you will know that all else is right. You are a truly great soul when
you can live with those who do things which you do not do, and yet refrain
from either criticism or interference. Do the things which are right for you to
do, and believe that every member of your family is doing the things which
are right for him. Nothing is wrong with anybody or anything; behold, it is all
very good. Do not be enslaved by any one else, but be just as careful that you
do not enslave any one else to your own notions of what is right.
Think, and think deeply and continuously; be perfect in your kindness and
consideration; let your attitude be that of a god among gods, and not that of a
god among inferior beings. This is the way to be great in your own home.

Chapter 15
Action Abroad
The rules which apply to your action at home must apply to your action
everywhere. Never forget for an instant that this is a perfect world, and that
you are a god among gods. You are as great as the greatest, but all are your
equals.
Rely absolutely on your perception of truth. Trust to the inner light rather
than to reason, but be sure that your perception comes from the inner light;
act in poise and calmness; be still and attend on God. Your identification of
yourself with the All-Mind will give you all the knowledge you need for
guidance in any contingency which may arise in your own life or in the lives
of others. It is only necessary that you should be supremely calm, and rely
upon the eternal wisdom which is within you. If you act in poise and faith,
your judgement will always be right, and you will always know exactly what
to do. Do not hurry or worry; remember Lincoln in the dark days of the war.
James Freeman Clarke relates that after the battle of Fredericksburg, Lincoln
alone furnished a supply of faith and hope for the nation. Hundreds of leading
men, from all parts of the country, went sadly into his room and came out
cheerful and hopeful. They had stood face to face with the Highest, and had
seen God in this lank, ungainly, patient man, although they knew it not.
Have perfect faith in yourself and in your ability to cope with any
combination of circumstances that may arise. Do not be disturbed if you are
alone; if you need friends they will come to you at the right time. Do not be
disturbed if you feel that you are ignorant; the information that you need will
be furnished you when it is time for you to have it. That which is in you
impelling you forward is in the things and people you need, impelling them
toward you. If there is a particular man you need to know, he will be
introduced to you; if there is a particular book you need to read it will be
placed in your hands at the right time. All the knowledge you need will come
to you from both external and internal sources. Your information and your
talents will always be equal to the requirements of the occasion. Remember
that Jesus told his disciples not to worry as to what they would say when

brought before the judges; he knew that the power in them would be
sufficient for the needs of the hour. As soon as you awaken and begin to use
your faculties in a great way you will apply power to the development of
your brain; new cells will be created and dormant cells quickened into
activity, and your brain will be qualified as a perfect instrument for your
mind.
Do not try to do great things until you are ready to go about them in a great
way. If you undertake to deal with great matters in a small way - that is, from
a low viewpoint or with incomplete consecration and wavering faith and
courage - you will fail. Do not be in a hurry to get to do the great things.
Doing great things will not make you great, but becoming great will certainly
lead you to the doing of great things. Begin to be great where you are and in
the things you do every day. Do not be in haste to be found out or recognized
as a great personality. Do not be disappointed if men do not nominate you for
office within a month after you begin to practice what you read in this book.
Great people never seek for recognition or applause; they are not great
because they want to be paid for doing so. Greatness is reward enough for
itself; the joy of being something and of knowing that you are advancing is
the greatest of all joys possible to man.
If you begin in your own family, as described in the preceding chapter, and
then assume the same mental attitude with your neighbors, friends, and those
you meet in business, you will soon find that people are beginning to depend
on you. Your advice will be sought, and a constantly increasing number of
people will look to you for strength and inspiration, and rely upon your
judgement. Here, as in the home, you must avoid meddling with other
people's affairs. Help all who come to you, but do not go about officiously
endeavoring to set other people right. Mind your own business. It is no part
of your mission in life to correct people's morals, habits, or practices. Lead a
great life, doing all things with a great spirit and in a great way; give to him
that asketh of thee as freely as ye have received, but do not force your help or
your opinions upon any man. If your neighbor wishes to smoke or drink, it is
his business; it is none of yours until he consults you about it. If you lead a
great life and do no preaching, you will save a thousand times as many souls
as one who leads a small life and preaches continuously.

If you hold the right viewpoint of the world, others will find it out and be
impressed by it through your daily conversation and practice. Do not try to
convert others to your point of view, except by holding it and living
accordingly. If your consecration is perfect you do not need to tell any one; it
will speedily become apparent to all that you are guided by a higher principle
than the average man or woman. If your identification with God is complete,
you do not need to explain the fact to others; it will become self-evident. To
become known as a great personality, you have nothing to do but to live. Do
not imagine that you must go charging about the world like Don Quixote,
tilting at windmills, and overturning things in general, in order to demonstrate
that you are somebody. Do not go hunting for big things to do. Live a great
life where you are, and in the daily work you have to do, and greater works
will surely find you out. Big things will come to you, asking to be done.
Be so impressed with the value of a man that you treat even a beggar or the
tramp with the most distinguished consideration. All is God. Every man and
woman is perfect. Let your manner be that of a god addressing other gods.
Do not save all your considerations of the poor; the millionaire is as good as
the tramp. This is a perfectly good world, and there is not a person or thing in
it but is exactly right; be sure that you keep this in mind in dealing with
things and men.
Form your mental vision of yourself with care. Make the thought-form of
yourself as you wish to be, and hold this with the faith that it is being
realized, and with the purpose to realize it completely. Do every common act
as a god should do it; speak every word as a god should speak it; meet men
and women of both low and high estate as a god meets other divine beings.
Begin thus and continue thus, and your unfoldment in ability and power will
be great and rapid.

Chapter 16
Some Further Explanations
We go back here to the matter of the point of view, for, besides being vitally
important, it is the one which is likely to give the student the most trouble.
We have been trained, partly by mistaken religious teachers, to look upon the
world as being like a wrecked ship, storm-driven upon a rocky coast; utter
destruction is inevitable at the end, and the most that can be done is to rescue,
perhaps, a few of the crew. This view teaches us to consider the world as
essentially bad and growing worse; and to believe that existing discords and
inharmonies must continue and intensify until the end. It robs us of hope for
society, government, and humanity, and gives us a decreasing outlook and
contracting mind.
This is all wrong. The world is not wrecked. It is like a magnificent steamer
with the engines in place and the machinery in perfect order. The bunkers are
full of coal, and the ship is amply provisioned for the cruise; there is no lack
of any good thing. Every provision Omniscience could devise has been made
for the safety, comfort, and happiness of the crew; the steamer is out on the
high seas tacking hither and thither because no one has yet learned the right
course to steer. We are learning to steer, and in due time will come grandly
into the harbor of perfect harmony.
The world is good, and growing better. Existing discords and inharmonies are
but the rollings of the ship incidental to our own imperfect steering; they will
all be removed in due time. This view gives us an increasing outlook and an
expanding mind; it enables us to think largely of society and of ourselves,
and to do things in a great way.
Furthermore, we see that nothing can be wrong with such a world or with any
part of it, including our own affairs. If it is all moving on toward completion,
then it is not going wrong; and as our own personal affairs are a part of the
whole, they are not going wrong. You and all that you are concerned with are
moving on toward completeness. Nothing can check this forward movement
but yourself; and you can only check it by assuming a mental attitude which

is at cross purposes with the mind of God. You have nothing to keep right but
yourself; if you keep yourself right, nothing can possibly go wrong with you,
and you can have nothing to fear. No business or other disaster can come
upon you if your personal attitude is right, for you are a part of that which is
increasing and advancing, and you must increase and advance with it.
Moreover your thought-form will be mostly shaped according to your
viewpoint of the cosmos. If you see the world as a lost and ruined thing you
will see yourself as a part of it, and as partaking of its sins and weaknesses. If
your outlook for the world as a whole is hopeless, your outlook for yourself
cannot be hopeful. If you see the world as declining towards its end, you
cannot see yourself as advancing. Unless you think well of all the works of
God you cannot really think well of yourself, and unless you think well of
yourself you can never become great.
I repeat that your place in life, including your material environment, is
determined by the thought-form you habitually hold of yourself. When you
make a thought-form of yourself you can hardly fail to form in your mind a
corresponding environment. If you think of yourself as an incapable,
inefficient person, you will think of yourself with poor or cheap
surroundings. Unless you think well of yourself you will be sure to picture
yourself in a more or less poverty stricken environment. These thoughts,
habitually held, become invisible forms in the surrounding mind-stuff, and
are with you continually. In due time, by the regular action of the eternal
creative energy, the invisible thought-forms are produced in material stuff,
and you are surrounded by your own thoughts made into material things.
See nature as a great living and advancing presence, and see human society in
exactly the same way. It is all one, coming from one source, and it is all
good. You yourself are made of the same stuff as God. All the constituents of
God are parts of yourself; every power that God has is a constituent of man.
You can move forward as you see God doing. You have within yourself the
source of every power.

Chapter 17
More About Thought
I give place here to some further consideration of thought. You will never
become great until your own thoughts make you great, and therefore it is of
first importance that you should THINK. You will never do great things in
the external world until you think great thoughts in the internal world; and
you will never think great things until you think about truth; about the
verities. To think great things you must be absolutely sincere; and to be
sincere you must know that your intentions are right. Insincere or false
thinking is never great, however logical and brilliant it may be.
The first and most important step is to seek the truth about human relations;
to know what you ought to be to other men, and what they ought to be to you.
This brings you back to the search for the right viewpoint. You should study
organic and social evolution. Read Darwin and Walter Thomas Mills, and
when you read, THINK; think the whole matter over until you see the world
of things and men in the right way. THINK about what God is doing until
you can SEE what he is doing.
Your next step is to think yourself into the right personal attitude. Your
viewpoint tells you what the right attitude is, and obedience to the soul puts
you into it. It is only by making a complete consecration of yourself to the
highest that is within you that you can attain to sincere thinking. So long as
you know you are selfish in your aims, or dishonest or crooked in any way in
your intentions or practices, your thinking will be false and your thoughts
will have no power. THINK about the way you are doing things; about all
your intentions, purposes, and practices, until you know they are right.
The fact of his own complete unity with God is one that no person can grasp
without deep and sustained thinking. Any one can accept the proposition in a
superficial way, but to feel and realize a vital comprehension of it is another
matter. It is easy to think of going outside of yourself to meet God, but it is
not so easy to think of going inside yourself to meet God. But God is there,
and in the holy of holies of your own soul you may meet him face to face. It

is a tremendous thing, this fact that all you need is already within you; that
you do not have to consider how to get the power to do what you want to do
or to make yourself what you want to be. You have only to consider how to
use the power you have in the right way. And there is nothing to do but to
begin. Use your perception of truth; you can see some truth to-day; live fully
up to that and you will see more truth to-morrow.
To rid yourself of the old false ideas you will have to think a great deal about
the value of men - the greatness and worth of a human soul. You must cease
from looking at human mistakes and look at successes; cease from seeing
faults and see virtues. You can no longer look upon men and women as lost
and ruined things who are descending into hell; you must come to regard
them as shining souls who are ascending toward heaven. It will require some
exercise of will power to do this, but this is the legitimate use of the will - to
decide what you will think about and how you will think. The function of the
will is to direct thought. Think about the good side of men; the lovely,
attractive part, and exert your will in refusing to think of anything else in
connection with them.
I know of no one who has attained to so much on this one point as Eugene V.
Debs, twice the Socialist candidate for president of the United States. Mr.
Debs reverences humanity. No appeal for help is ever made to him in vain.
No one receives from him an unkind or censorious word. You cannot come
into his presence without being made sensible of his deep and kindly personal
interest in you. No one, whether millionaire, grimy workingman, or toil worn
woman, meets him without receiving the radiant warmth of a brotherly
affection that is sincere and true. No ragged child speaks to him on a street
without receiving instant and tender recognition. Debs loves men. This has
made him the leading figure in a great movement, the beloved hero of a
million hearts, and will give him a deathless name. It is a great thing to love
men so and it is only achieved by thought. Nothing can make you great but
thought.
"We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who
think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The
first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest
meaning of the word."

- Schopenhauer
"The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defiant though he look he
has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are
classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which
commands his own."
- Emerson
"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to
make them really ours we must think them over again honestly till they take
root in our own personal expression"
- Goethe
"All that a man is outwardly is but the expression and completion of his
inward thought. To work effectively he must think clearly. To act nobly he
must think nobly."
- Channing
"Great men are they who see that spirituality is stronger than any material
force; that thoughts rule the world."
- Emerson
"Some people study all their lives, and at their death they have learned
everything except to think."
- Domerque
"It is the habitual thought that frames itself into our life. It affects us even
more than our intimate social relations do. Our confidential friends have not
so much to do in shaping our lives as the thoughts have which we harbor."
- J. W. Teal
"When God lets loose a great thinker on this planet, then all things are at risk.
There is not a piece of science but its flank may be turned to- morrow; nor
any literary reputation or the so-called eternal names of fame that may not be
refused and condemned."
- Emerson

Think! Think!! THINK!!!

Chapter 18
Jesus' Idea of Greatness
In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew Jesus makes a very plain distinction
between true and false greatness; and also points out the one great danger to
all who wish to become great - the most insidious of temptations which all
must avoid and fight unceasingly who desire to really climb in the world.
Speaking to the multitude and to his disciples he bids them beware of
adopting the principle of the Pharisees. He points out that while the Pharisees
are just and righteous men, honorable judges, true lawgivers and upright in
their dealings with men, they "love the uppermost seats at feasts and
greetings in the market place, and to be called Master, Master"; and in
comparison with this principle, he says:
"He that will be great among you let him serve."
The average person's idea of a great man, rather than of one who serves, is of
one who succeeds in getting himself served. He gets himself in a position to
command men; to exercise power over them, making them obey his will. The
exercise of dominion over other people, to most persons, is a great thing.
Nothing seems to be sweeter to the selfish soul than this. You will always
find every selfish and undeveloped person trying to domineer over others, to
exercise control over other men. Savage men were no sooner placed upon the
earth than they began to enslave one another. For ages the struggle in war,
diplomacy, politics, and government has been aimed at the securing of
control over other men. Kings and princes have drenched the soil of the earth
in blood and tears in the effort to extend their dominions and their power, - to
rule more people.
The struggle of the business world to-day is the same as that on the
battlefields of Europe a century ago so far as the ruling principle is
concerned. Robert G. Ingersoll could not understand why men like
Rockefeller and Carnegie seek for more money and make themselves slaves
to the business struggle when they already have more than they could
possibly use. He thought it a kind of madness and illustrated it as follows:

"Suppose a man had fifty thousand pairs of pants, seventy-five thousand
vests, one hundred thousand coats, and one hundred and fifty thousand
neckties, what would you think of him if he arose in the morning before light
and worked until after it was dark every day, rain or shine, in all kinds of
weather, merely to get another necktie?"
But it is not a good simile. The possession of the neckties gives a man no
power over other men, while the possession of dollars does. Rockefeller,
Carnegie, and their kind are not after dollars but power. It is the principle of
the Pharisee; it is the struggle for the high places. It develops able men,
cunning men, resourceful men, but not great men.
I want you to contrast these two ideas of greatness sharply in your minds.
"He that will be great among you let him serve." Let me stand before the
average American audience and ask the name of the greatest American and
the majority will think of Abraham Lincoln; and is this not because in
Lincoln above all other men who have served us in public life we recognize
this spirit of service? Not servility, but service. Lincoln was a great man
because he knew how to be a great servant. Napoleon, able, cold, selfish,
seeking the high places, was a brilliant man. Lincoln was great, Napoleon
was not.
The very moment you begin to advance and are recognized as one who is
doing things in a great way you will find yourself in danger. The temptation
to patronize, advise, or take upon yourself the direction of other people's
affairs is sometimes almost irresistible. Avoid, however, the opposite danger
of falling into servility, or of completely throwing yourself away in the
service of others. To do this has been the ideal of a great many people. The
completely self-sacrificing life has been thought to be the Christ-like life,
because, as I think, of a complete misconception of the character and
teachings of Jesus. I have explained this misconception in a little book which
I hope you may all sometime read. Thousands of people imitating Jesus, as
they suppose, have belittled themselves and given up all else to go about
doing good; practicing an altruism that is really as morbid and as far away
from great as the rankest selfishness. The finer instincts which respond to the
cry of trouble or distress are not by any means all of you; they are not
necessarily the best part of you. There are other things you must do besides

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